Wednesday's Letters: Varying explanations for the silence of the birds and bees

We have lived in the same house for nearly 40 years and cuckoos have arrived nearby every year within two days either side of April 30.

It is an event we anticipate and experience the joy and relief on their arrival which heralds the spring-early summer.

We hear their call (and occasionally see them) every day until the beginning of July.

Having completed their purpose, they have just departed and we wonder whether this will be the last time we see and hear them as

unfortunately plans are afoot which may kill them along with nightjars, harriers, sparrow hawks, kestrels, bats, butterflies and bees which are also prevalent near our back garden.

These dastardly plans are to erect wind turbines nearby which, at over 400 feet high, will certainly shred many of these and other flying creatures – and for what reason? They certainly will not cause any power station to shut down!

From: David and Pamela Heath, Wilkinson Avenue, Moorends, Doncaster.

From: Dennis Bolton, The Robins, Burley in Wharfedale, Ilkley.

I EXPERIENCED a touch of irony when reading Malcolm Barker's

interesting article about the silence of birds and vanishing bees and butterflies.

I was reading the article sitting outside in our garden and my

concentration was repeatedly interrupted by the singing and chirping of several birds circling around. Indeed, the bird noise was considerable, prompting my wife, who was trying to read a book, looking up to the sky and shouting "shut up" to the birds who, of course, carried on singing.

So the birds are not silent – at least in our part of the country. I agree there do not seem to be many butterflies or bees about but we still have plenty of insects and need to use the fly spray from time to time.

From: Jennifer Whiteley, Claxton, York.

I READ Malcolm Barker's article with some amazement. In what deprived area of Yorkshire does he live? Here, despite an immensely hard winter, we have our usual wide range of small birds, all giving us a wonderful daily dawn chorus.

Although our swallows' numbers were decreased, again due to the hard winter in Europe, we have five pairs, busily bringing off their second families and there are more than enough insects to keep them going. As our buddleias are not yet flowering, we have yet to see how many butterflies have survived the hardest winter for 30 years but we are hopeful.

Alas, our cuckoo perished, due to a peregrine falcon. I know the RSPB are delighted at the increase in the birds of prey, but they seem

unable to connect that the decrease in small birds is in no small part due to their depredations, just as they seem not to realise the damage that the magpies do to nestlings. Do not blame farmers for everything – that is both inaccurate and simplistic.

Fears for the future of school sport

From: JW Slack, Swinston Hill Road, Dinnington, Sheffield.

THE PE partnership manager for Rotherham schools has recently explained that the secondary school programme provides opportunity each year for entry into 81 competitions in 18 different sports leading to Rotherham Schools' Champion title. Other activities also take place on a friendly

inter-school basis.

Furthermore, a primary competitive programme offers nearly 500 sports festivals across the local authority in 15 different sports culminating in area finals and entry into county events.

You featured a Cricket Foundation poll (Yorkshire Post, June 24) involving more than 1,000 parents and 500 children relating to children attempting to miss PE lessons.

Accepting that everyone is not athletic, it really is sad that children "don't like the weather", or "lack sporting prowess", or "are embarrassed by the way they look in sports kit". This is hardly a reason for 31 per cent of parents to send in sick notes in support of their children's dislike when participation in physical activities will help solve their personal feelings.

I don't recall looking forward to the surprise visit to the chamber to test my gas mask, or our regular shelter drills – sitting on slatted seats in the pitch black with a teacher's torch occasionally switched on for comfort – and nobody dare forget their gas mask every day.

Apparently, only six per cent of parents enjoyed games at school and obviously other forms of activities in walking, gardening, etc are available, but surely schools deserve 100 per cent support from parents.

You can only realise your potential if you give yourself a chance by participating. I hardly think that the Cricket Foundation involved parents from disadvantaged areas. The picture could be quite bleak.

From: Robert Bottamley, Thorn Road, Hedon, East Yorkshire.

I FOUND Eugene Johnson's uncritically favourable description of the previous government's contribution to school sport ("How Labour gave school PE a sporting chance", Yorkshire Post, July 1) completely unrecognisable.

First, during its 13 years, the New Labour administration continued the Conservative policy of selling off school playing fields.

Second, school sport suffered (and suffers still) from an overloaded and relentlessly expanding curriculum that found little time for it. During my teaching life, all the classes I took were timetabled for two periods of Games and PE, each of them lasting an hour. Towards the end, I had the task of explaining to resentful pupils they would have only one lesson of sport a week, the second to be replaced by the excitement of design technology.

Third, teachers were (and remain) submerged in unnecessary and

unproductive paperwork, courses and meetings by New Labour education ministers. Consequently, many found they no longer had the time, the energy or the inclination to train children in sporting activities, or to organise fixtures.

Where teachers continue to provide commitment to sport, I submit they do so not because of the Government Mr Johnson so admires, but in spite of it.

From: David T Craggs, Tunstall, East Yorkshire.

AN expression that we often hear is that "things go round in circles". This couldn't be more true than in education. Wakefield had an academy in the 1950s, as I suspect some other towns and cities in the country did. The teaching of separate subjects was widespread up to the 1980s, then went out of fashion, to be replaced by integrated subjects such as general science.

As recently as last year, primary schools were instructed to follow a "thematic" approach to teaching. Now they are being asked to again teach separate subjects, such as history.

I have just read Jayne Dowle's excellent article (Yorkshire Post, June 27) on the resurrection of the school sports day. Here, too, we are witnessing the "going round in circles" phenomenon.

In Wakefield, where I taught the secondary sector, the highlight of the summer term during the 1970s was the interhouse sports day which all the children enjoyed, whether participating or spectating. There was no compulsion to take part, but all were encouraged to do so. Points were awarded for every position so even if a child came last they gained a point that in the final count could make the difference between their house coming first or second.

Our sports day was like a mini- Olympics. Almost all events were

covered by both boys and girls. Twelve-year-old girls were trusted with javelins, discuses and shots, and although there weren't such things as airbeds, our high jumpers were taught not only the scissors, but the western roll as well.

The highlight of the afternoon were the relays, that often decided the winning house. The head teacher then presented the joint captains (boy and girl) with the winner's shield the size of a dustbin lid. Those children who performed well may even to this day remember sports day with affection. Those who didn't certainly weren't scarred for the rest of their lives by the experience.

But, without doubt, the most rewarding event was the interschools athletics competition, held at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. With its excellent sports facilities, it was the only school that could handle such a large event. This was also run as a mini-Olympics with all the local secondary schools taking part. This event had a unique points system that somehow equalled out the advantage of a large school over a small one. As a result, my school, with a roll of fewer than 400, won this competition on two occasions, and always did well.

Those were indeed halcyon days, Jayne, and not imagined ones either.

Britain forgets quality and worships celebrity

From: Ian Winter, Holderness Road, Hull.

IT'S not just football. Something's wrong with England and Britain.

We are a society that seems to have a fetish with celebrity and no clue to meritocracy or quality. We are a culture drowning in a canker of sub-culture, suffocated in apathy, afraid to stand alone. Where were John Terry's comrades when he spoke out? Where are the lion-hearted

supporters now we've lost? The result was inevitable.

The full set-up from the FA down is all over-rated but is the problem deeper in the British psyche?

Do we really believe that Britain is great and England have an inherent right to win World Cups because we invented football and those less worthy speak our great language and we have an anthem for a Queen and the mother of democracy and St George killed dragons?

Well, I'm sorry to be the bearer of sad news, but dragons never

existed. Richard wasn't a lion heart, Henry VIII was a wife beater and football belongs to those who play it with flair and passion. Those we call the royal and privileged might only support our cause and dreams when it suits their ambitions; they call it propaganda.

So have we always been obsessed with celebrity and the making of celebrities? We used to call footballers our working class heroes. What's gone wrong?

From: Ken Voase, Brandesburton, Driffield.

An easy way for Chancellor George Osborne to balance the books would be to charge multi-millionaire footballers a 90 per cent rate of income tax on their wage; they would still be overpaid considering their

recent performances.

Cameron sitting on EU fence

From: David W Wright, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

TIMOTHY Kirkhope MEP couldn't have written a more damning article (Yorkshire Post, June 17) for the UK to withdraw from his beloved EU gravy train, but judging from the noises already being made by the PM this is highly unlikely in spite of the majority opinion of the country.

Bernard Ingham in his excellent column (Yorkshire Post, June 16) on the previous day spells out the problems and current scenario very succinctly and his warning of trouble ahead for the stability of the coalition Government which has a great deal of dissension within its ranks.

The issue of our continued membership of the federal EU state has got to be faced and David Cameron cannot sit on the fence while the UK flounders and remains tied to Brussels central control.

Spies and real national threat

From: Trev Bromby, Sculcoates Lane, Hull.

IT seems America is in the grip of a comical spy plot: "Read carefully, I will put this on Twitter only once...."

Not so comical are the militant leaders of the RMT and Unite unions.

Unite: Yes, we know we have the best paid cabin crew, but give us more or we will do our best to break you, BA.

RMT: Yes, we know there are going to be fewer workers needed because of the recession, we know cuts have to be made, we know the coalition has inherited crippling debt – but Bob Crow issues a call to arms and declares all-out war if you try to take one, just one, RMT union member's job.

Unlike the American dissidents, this pair of non-funny clowns are a serious threat to the nation.